Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!cbnews!military
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Exploding bullets
Message-ID: <7452@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 14 Jun 89 03:26:55 GMT
Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM
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From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
>How are they constructed and how do they work?  Why were they
>invented?  Are they like little grenades? ...

Exploding bullets are not explosive bullets, despite the confusing
terminology.  The latter would have explosive charges in them; nobody
has bothered with such, as the charge wouldn't be big enough to have
any useful effect.  The former are a more drastic form of expanding
bullets.  There are several varieties, but one version has a small
cavity containing a drop of mercury inside a soft-nosed bullet.  When
the bullet hits something, the mercury slams forward in the cavity
and the nose of the bullet bursts outward under the impact.  Lots of
of fragments and a big messy wound.  They are illegal for civilian
hunting use in most places, and I think one of the Geneva conventions
theoretically outlaws them for use in warfare.

                                     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
                                 uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu